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Vaccines & Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Inflammatory bowel disease is one of the adverse side affects associated with vaccination.

From Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs & Cats, (Dr. Pitcairn is a DVM with a Ph.D. in veterinary immunology) Under "Vaccination: Replacing Acute Illness with Chronic Disease," p. 274-275: "While immunosuppressive states are not common in dogs, reports of their occurrence are on the rise. I believe the massive vaccination program for canine parvovirus, which began some thirty plus years after we began vaccinating cats with feline parvovirus (panleuokpenia virus), is creating this situation in dogs. .... we have been seeing inflammatory bowel disease in dogs over the past five to ten years. Prior to this it was virtually nonexistent. I am certain that vaccination for parvovirus and coronavirus is a major cause. I commonly see inflammatory bowel disease that arises within a month or two after vaccination for one of these viruses."

Excellent information on veterinary vaccines is available at the links below:

Kris, I am not sure what your point is in posting a thread like this. On the one hand, you have posted, in bold type, statements about possible adverse reactions that imply people should reconsider whether to vaccinate at all. Many people would assume this is a warning against vaccinating for parvovirus at all!! Then you post a number of links ALL of which clearly state that dogs should be vaccinated on a correct schedule. Nowhere do you post in bold face that in fact, all these people recommend parvo vaccines.

Are you seriously trying to suggest that people should reconsider having their dogs vaccinated for parvovirus? This is what many people will take away from many of your posts, not least because they will read the bold faced type and will NOT take the time to click through and read the balanced links. Isolating one small element from an overall article can be used to give a total misrepresentation of the article and that is what I feel you are doing in many of your posts. I find this deeply worrying because it can persuade people to take a course of action that could adversely affect the health of their animals and of their pet and human community: maintaining 'herd immunity' levels are important to containing the threat of widespread problems with horrific conditions like parvo, and there are serious human implications for not vaccinating against rabies.

I am of the very strong personal opinion that far too much loony 'advice' exists out there to make people feel they perhaps should not vaccinate their dogs. Much of this is circulated by people who have never say, worked in rescue at pounds and seen puppies dying in hideous pain from parvo and distemper. Rabies vaccinations are legally required for public health reasons -- not simply for the dog, but because children in particular die from rabid dog bites in places where vaccines are not given and this too is a very slow and painful death. The alternative -- the injections done on humans if an animal is not known to be rabies free -- are also extremely painful.

I know that the rare adverse reaction caused by vaccines is deeply distressing to the person whose dog or cat is affected, but far more people would see far more routine deaths in pets if NONE were vaccinated. Work in rescue, and you regularly see what happens to the unvacinated dogs exposed to these killer diseases.

I feel very comfortable with the level of information already supplied here on vaccination. I post plenty of current information in my Library section on the latest research on vaccinations protocols. This includes three year core vax recommendations and of course, Dr Dodds' own protocols which recommend vaccination. Active members of the board also regularly post information on both mainstream and holistic approaches to health care.

At this time, I do not feel posts such as the one above are making a positive contribution here and worry they may cause unnecessary distress and concern for some dog owners -- or worse -- make them actually avoid vaccination for something as serious as parvovirus.

I respect the fact that you are involved with fundraising for further trials on rabies vaccines and wish you the best of luck with your work, but in future will place all posts on moderation and decide if they are appropriate to the ethos of this particular board.